Four seniors scored in double digits, but it was a freshman for Trenton Catholic that stole the show.

Freshman Malachi Richardson scored a team-high 20 points, hitting six 3-pointers, to lead Trenton Catholic, No. 7 in The Star-Ledger Top 20, to an 81-73 victory over No. 6 St. Patrick in the SFIC Basketball Festival yesterday at Kean University in Union.

Nate King came off the bench and scored 15 points in 15 minutes, Chazz Paterson added 13 and Charles Cooke and Brandon Taylor had 12 points each to lead a well-balanced attack for Trenton Catholic (5-2), which has won three straight games.

"We saw them play in Teaneck and then we played them in the summer and beat us by a point, so it was somewhat of a rehashing of what we went through the first time we played them," Trenton Catholic head coach Mel Wheldon said. "We worked real hard for four days to prepare for this game and it took a while to build up some intensity with these guys. And what you saw on the court tonight, they displayed that intensity."

Trenton Catholic came out with a fast and aggressive style from the opening tip, jumping on St. Patrick early with a 6-0 run en route to a 22-11 first quarter lead. Down 24-13 with 6:13 left in the second quarter, St. Patrick went on a 12-2 run to pull within 26-25 with 1:15 remaining, but Trenton Catholic ended the quarter on a 5-0 run to take a 31-26 halftime lead.

Richardson had 11 points, hitting three 3-pointers and Taylor added 10 points and six rebounds for Trenton Catholic in the first half.

"We got into some foul trouble with Brandon in the second half and someone else had to step up, so why not me?" said a smiling Richardson, a 6-6 guard. "We had to have energy, rebounding, defense, everything. We had to have it all to win."

Leading 52-49 after a combined 44-point third quarter, Trenton Catholic went on a 5-0 run to start the fourth, including a 3-pointer by Richardson right out of the gate, to give Trenton Catholic a 57-49 lead with 6:45 to play. St. Patrick cut the lead to four on a 3-point play by Elijah Davis, but with five minutes remaining, Richardson went baseline, kicked it out to Paterson and Paterson drained a 3-pointer to give Trenton Catholic a 61-54 lead.

St. Patrick would get no closer than six points the rest of the way.

DeAndre Bembry scored a game-high 26 points (11-for-20 from the field), Jared Nickens added 16 points, hitting three 3-pointers, and Elijah Davis came off the bench to contribute 11 for St. Patrick (4-3).

"Give them credit,'' St. Patrick head coach Chris Chavannes said. "They came right at us and jumped on us and I expected that. We played them in the summer and they came at us like it was a midseason game, so I knew they would be tough. They got out to that early lead, but our kids kept battling. We're a young team, so that's a positive we will take out of this. We're going through some growing pains, which is to be expected, but we have to learn from this, keep working hard and just keep on going."